Women's Views on News |
| Questions for the Labour Party regarding porn Posted: 02 Apr 2015 10:42 AM PDT
Here are some questions Child's Eye Line UK would like to put to the Labour Party. The NSPCC has recently released figures that one in five children think viewing pornography is normal and 10 per cent of 12 year-olds are addicted to pornography. Do you think that recent comments by Simon Danczuk MP that he views porn and it is "part of modern life" go some way towards normalising pornography and making it more likely for children to be exposed to it? Given that The Children's Commissioner's report 2013 ("Basically, porn is everywhere") concludes that "exposure to sexualised imagery is damaging to children's psychological and sexual development, their relationships and their self-esteem and makes risky sexual behaviour more likely" and that children are "more accepting of violence against women if they are exposed to sexualised imagery," should the Labour Party not be more concerned about the normalisation of porn in our society? 88 per cent of the most popular pornography involves violence against women and girls (Bridges A.J. et al 2010). With 85,000 rapes and 450,000 sexual assaults reported in the UK every year (Home Office data), and 1 in 3 women experiencing sexual or domestic violence (the biggest demographic for domestic violence is teenage girls) is pornography something a public servant should shrug off as "part of modern life"? Research presented to the Lords and Commons Group for the Protection of Children and Families by Professor Kevin Browne (professor of forensic psychology at the University of Nottingham) found that young people are more accepting of violence against women and girls if they are exposed to sexually objectified images of women. "The first step in accepting and perpetrating violence against women is to view women as dehumanized sex objects." (Browne, 2014). Should the Labour Party just accept pornography as "part of modern life"? The NSPCC reported a 65 per cent increase in 2014 from boys calling ChildLine who are traumatised by the violent porn they have viewed online. Claire Lilley, policy advisor at the NSPCC, speaking about the rise in child on child sexual violence, said: "In some cases older children are attacking younger ones and in other cases it's sexual violence within a teenage relationship. "We know that easy access to sexual material is warping young people's views of what is 'normal' or acceptable behaviour." The NSPCC reports that 75 per cent of teenage girls experience emotional violence in their relationships, 25 per cent experience actual physical violence and 1 in 4 young people in the UK think that violence in a relationship is "sometimes appropriate" (it never is). In the light of this data, should the Labour party not take the issue of pornography more seriously? Online pornography is well known for its strong links to misogyny, sexual objectification and often serves as an actual record of harm and exploitation. There is no way of knowing if the women and girls featured in porn are consenting, trafficked or are being drugged or abused. Is the Labour Party concerned about the real human beings in the pornography itself, as well as the consumers, or is it prepared to only quote the muliti-billion pound porn industry's carefully chosen spokespeople? Should the Labour Party's concerns about the porn industry and its links to global sexual exploitation, trafficking and prostitution be referenced whenever the Labour Party discusses the subject of pornography? Should the Labour Party just accept pornography as "part of modern life"?  |
| Women, suicide and the UK government Posted: 02 Apr 2015 08:58 AM PDT
The Femicide Census posted recently does not include details of the victims of abuse who kill themselves. So, just as Karen Ingala Smith took on naming women killed by their partners or exes by Counting Dead Women, Karen Blatchford has set out to collate information about and the names of women who have comitted suicide. Ten women a week die by suicide attributed to domestic violence, Blatchford says on her Twitter account @10womenaweek, and rape victims are 13 times more likely to attempt suicide. And, she posts, women showing symptoms of Post-Natal Depression are 3 times more likely to have experienced domestic violence in their lifetime. A UK study found 60 per cent of women with an eating disorder had a lifetime experience of domestic violence, she reports, and 25 per cent had experienced domestic violence in the last year. In England and Wales, suicide is the leading cause of death for women aged 20 to 34 and the third leading cause for women aged 35 to 49. And 34 per cent of registered female suicides can be attributed to intimate partner violence. Taking 2013 figures, that is 468 deaths from a total of 1,375. Alongside that, 1 in 3 female psychiatric patients (whether inpatient or outpatient) has experienced domestic violence during her lifetime. The government's second annual suicide prevention report summarised the latest trends, research and developments on suicide prevention in England. The report, which was released last month, calls on services to be more ambitious about suicide prevention, and challenge the assumption that suicide is inevitable. It highlights 3 areas in England that have already adopted a zero suicide ambition and outlines how services can improve by adopting this new attitude and effective interventions. Madeleine Moon chaired the government’s all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for suicide and self-harm prevention. Speaking just before the report was released, she said an APPG survey of local authorities in England found that about 30 per cent do not have a suicide prevention action plan, about 40 per cent do not have a multi-agency suicide prevention group and roughly 30 per cent do not collect local suicide data. The APPG is calling on Public Health England to use its 15 local centres nationwide to support public health teams in areas where its survey shows the national strategy is not being fully implemented. Parallel to this, in a written parliamentary answer, Lord Freud has confirmed a recent revelation by the website Benefits and Work that it has now been deliberately made harder for women claimants to qualify for the support group of employment and support allowance (ESA). Lord Freud is a Conservative member of the House of Lords and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Welfare Reform. Following a parliamentary question from the – crossbench – Countess of Mar 'To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the scoring for Work Capability Assessment applicants with mental health problems has been loaded to make it more difficult for women to qualify for the support group than it is for men; and, if so, why', Lord Freud's reply was: "The criteria for eligibility for the support group in Employment and Support Allowance remains the same for men and women. "The updated guidance for healthcare professionals on the assessment of risk in claimants with a Mental Health condition was developed with input from senior psychiatrists. "It differentiates between men and women in relation to suicide risk because the suicide rate in men is significantly higher than in women. "The guidance makes clear that the assessment of risk needs to focus both on the claimant's health and whether the claimant could cope with work-related activity." In their newsletter, Benefits and Work warned readers that: '… a new scoring system has been created to decide if claimants with mental health issues can get into the support group because of a risk of harm to themselves or someone else. 'The system has been deliberately designed to make it more difficult for women to qualify than men.' The 'substantial risk' regulations are now one of the most important ways of getting into a support group. According to Dr Paul Litchfield, the independent reviewer of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), 38 per cent of all new support group entries are on 'substantial risk' grounds. Two thirds of these are decided on papers alone, without the need for a medical assessment. The regulations apply where a claimant has not qualified for the support group, but where it is then decided that there would be a substantial risk to the claimant or to someone else unless they are found to be incapable of work-related activity. But until now there has been no difference in how men and women were assessed. However, Benefits and Work revealed that the new scoring system now deliberately makes it harder for women to qualify for the support group than for men. For example, a man with a diagnosis of depression and a history of deliberate self-harm who is unemployed – generally the case for ESA claimants – will be eligible for the support group, according to the guidance. But a woman in the same situation will not be eligible for the support group. Instead, she will have to also show that an additional factor – such as being homeless or divorced – applies to her. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently showed that suicide rates are now at their highest in over a decade and most of the increase is amongst men. Organisations such as Mind are linking the rise to benefits cuts. And many people would question whether a difference in suicide rates is sufficient to justify different treatment for men and women in relation to claiming benefits. If you have problems and want someone to talk to, you can contact The Samaritans. You can call them on 08457 90 90 90.  |
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